Transcriptional Control of Seed Life: New Insights into the Role of the NAC Family.

Transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression by binding to specific sequences on DNA through their DNA-binding domain (DBD), a universal process. This update conveys information about the diverse roles of TFs, focusing on the NACs (NAM-ATAF-CUC), in regulating target-gene expression and influencing various aspects of plant biology. NAC TFs appeared before the emergence of land plants.

The complete chloroplast genome of (Alef.) M.F. Ray (Malvaceae, Malvoideae).

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of wild sea mallow (=) was determined and characterized in this study. The genome is 158,162 bp long, containing a pair of inverted repeats regions (IRs) of 25,166 bp, which are separated by a large single-copy region of 86,860 bp and a small single-copy region of 20,970 bp. The sea mallow chloroplast genome has 131 known genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, eight ribosomal genes, and 37 genes.

Plant evolution in alkaline magnesium-rich soils: A phylogenetic study of the Mediterranean genus Hormathophylla (Cruciferae: Alysseae) based on nuclear and plastid sequences.

Habitats with alkaline edaphic substrates are often associated with plant speciation and diversification. The tribe Alysseae, in the family Brassicaceae, epitomizes this evolutionary trend. In this lineage, some genera, like Hormathophylla, can serve as a good case for testing the evolutionary framework.

Ornithophily for the nonspecialist: Differential pollination efficiency of the Macaronesian island paleoendemic Navaea phoenicea (Malvaceae) by generalist passerines.

Premise Of The Study: A bird pollination syndrome exists in the Canary Islands archipelago across independent plant lineages despite the absence of specialist birds. The pollination efficiency of current floral visitors remains unknown for many plant species despite this being a fundamental factor in testing hypotheses about the origin of the syndrome. Here, we studied the components of pollination efficiency in the paleoendemic Navaea phoenicea, a species exhibiting conspicuous anatomical modifications associated with bird pollination.

Evolution and Expression Patterns of Genes in : Phylogenetic Insights for Floral Symmetry Genes in Asteraceae.

Homologs of the gene family have been independently recruited many times across the eudicots to control aspects of floral symmetry The family Asteraceae exhibits the largest known diversification in this gene paralog family accompanied by a parallel morphological floral richness in its specialized head-like inflorescence. In Asteraceae, whether or not gene floral symmetry function is preserved along organismic and gene lineages is unknown. In this study, we used phylogenetic, structural and expression analyses focused on the highly derived genus (tribe Anthemidae) to address this question.

Pollinator shifts drive petal epidermal evolution on the Macaronesian Islands bird-flowered species.

Pollinator shifts are considered to drive floral trait evolution, yet little is still known about the modifications of petal epidermal surface at a biogeographic region scale. Here we investigated how independent shifts from insects to passerine birds in the Macaronesian Islands consistently modified this floral trait (i.e.

Convergent recruitment of new pollinators is triggered by independent hybridization events in Narcissus.

Hybridization can generate new species if some degree of isolation prevents gene flow between the hybrids and their progenitors. The recruitment of novel pollinators by hybrids has been hypothesized to be one way in which such reproductive isolation can be achieved. We tested whether pollinators contributed to isolation between two natural Narcissus hybrids and their progenitors using pollination experiments, observations, plus morphological and floral-volatile measurements.

Foliar secretory structures in Crotoneae (Euphorbiaceae): Diversity, anatomy, and evolutionary significance.

Premise Of The Study: Phylogenetic and morphological studies have helped clarify the systematics of large and complex groups such as the tribe Crotoneae (Euphorbiaceae). However, very little is known about the diversity, structure, and function of anatomical features in this tribe. Crotoneae comprises the species-rich pantropical genus Croton and six small neotropical genera.

Genetic patterns of habitat fragmentation and past climate-change effects in the Mediterranean high-mountain plant Armeria caespitosa (Plumbaginaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Mountain plants are among the species most vulnerable to global warming, because of their isolation, narrow geographic distribution, and limited geographic range shifts. Stochastic and selective processes can act on the genome, modulating genetic structure and diversity. Fragmentation and historical processes also have a great influence on current genetic patterns, but the spatial and temporal contexts of these processes are poorly known.

Floral development and evolution of capitulum structure in Anacyclus (Anthemideae, Asteraceae).

Background And Aims: Most of the diversity in the pseudanthia of Asteraceae is based on the differential symmetry and sexuality of its flowers. In Anacyclus, where there are (1) homogamous capitula, with bisexual, mainly actinomorphic and pentamerous flowers; and (2) heterogamous capitula, with peripheral zygomorphic, trimerous and long-/short-rayed female flowers, the floral ontogeny was investigated to infer their origin.

Methods: Floral morphology and ontogeny were studied using scanning electron microscope and light microscope techniques.

Genome size and base composition variation in natural and experimental Narcissus (Amaryllidaceae) hybrids.

Background And Aims: Although there is evidence that both allopolyploid and homoploid hybridization lead to rapid genomic changes, much less is known about hybrids from parents with different basic numbers without further chromosome doubling. Two natural hybrids, Narcissus × alentejanus (2n = 19) and N. × perezlarae (2n = 29), originated by one progenitor (N.

Molecular evidence for hybridization and introgression in the neotropical coastal desert-endemic Palaua (Malveae, Malvaceae).

Recent years have seen an increasing awareness of the importance of hybridization and introgression in plant evolution. Both processes were also invoked to have had a strong impact in the evolution of Palaua, based on morphological intermediacy. Here, we used nuclear ITS and cellulose synthase DNA sequences to assess previous phylogenetic hypotheses and to uncover previously undescribed reticulate evolution in Palaua.

Unraveling cryptic reticulate relationships and the origin of orphan hybrid disjunct populations in Narcissus.

Evolutionary consequences of natural hybridization between species may vary so drastically depending on spatial, genetic, and ecological factors that multiple approaches are required to uncover them. To unravel the evolutionary history of a controversial hybrid (Narcissus x perezlarae), here we use four approaches: DNA sequences from five regions (four organellar, one nuclear), cytological studies (chromosome counts and genome size), crossing experiments, and niche modeling. We conclude that (1) it actually consists of two different hybrid taxa, N.

Five molecular markers reveal extensive morphological homoplasy and reticulate evolution in the Malva alliance (Malvaceae).

The Malva alliance is a well-defined group with extensive morphological homoplasy. As a result, the relationships among the taxa as well as the evolution of morphological traits have remained elusive and the traditional classifications are highly artificial. Using five molecular markers (nuclear ITS, plastid matK plus trnK, ndhF, trnL-trnF, psbA-trnH), we arrived at a phylogenetic hypothesis of this group, the genera Alcea, Althaea and Malvalthaea being studied here for the first time with molecular data.

Ecology matters: Atlantic-Mediterranean disjunction in the sand-dune shrub Armeria pungens (Plumbaginaceae).

Inferring the evolutionary history of Mediterranean plant lineages from current genetic, distributional and taxonomic patterns is complex because of a number of palaeoclimatic and geological interconnected factors together with landscape heterogeneity and human influence. Therefore, choosing spatially simplified systems as study groups is a suitable approach. An amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) study using two restriction enzyme combinations (EcoRI/MseI and KpnI/MseI) was carried out to estimate the structure of genetic variation throughout the range of Armeria pungens.

Phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Malveae (Malvaceae, subfamily Malvoideae) as inferred from ITS sequence data.

Phylogenetic relationships among genera of tribe Malveae (Malvaceae, subfamily Malvoideae) were reconstructed using sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal repeat. Newly generated sequences were combined with those available from previous generic level studies to assess the current circumscription of the tribe, monophyly of some of the larger genera, and character evolution within the tribe. The ITS data do not support monophyly of most generic alliances as presently defined, nor do the data support monophyly of several Malveae genera.

Origin of the disjunct tetraploid Cardamine amporitana (Brassicaceae) assessed with nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequence data.

Seventy-four nucleotide sequences from the ITS regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA and 76 from the trnL-trnF spacer of chloroplast DNA were used to address the origin of tetraploid Cardamine amporitana, the conspecifity of central Italian and northeastern Spanish populations, and the possible cause for such geographic disjunction. Because of the complex lineage relationships in Cardamine, the sampling included 22 taxa. In the results, both data sets are highly congruent in supporting a close relationship of C.

Fine-scale geographical structure, intra-individual polymorphism and recombination in nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers in Armeria (Plumbaginaceae).

Background And Aims: Isolation and drift are the main causes for geographic structure of molecular variation. In contrast, the one found in a previous survey in Armeria (Plumbaginaceae) for nuclear ribosomal ITS multicopy regions was species-independent and has been hypothesized to be due to extensive gene-flow and biased concerted evolution. Since this was inferred from a genus-level phylogenetic analysis, the aim of this study was to check for the occurrence of such structure and the validity of the proposed model at a local scale, in a southern Spanish massif (Sierra Nevada), as well as to examine the evolutionary implications at the organism level.

Additive polymorphisms and reticulation in an ITS phylogeny of thrifts (Armeria, Plumbaginaceae).

A parsimony analysis of 133 sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS1+5.8S+ITS2 region from 71 taxa in Armeria was carried out. The presence of additive polymorphic sites (APS; occurring in 14 accessions) fits the reticulate scenario proposed in previous work for explaining the ITS pattern of variation on a much smaller scale and is based mainly on the geographical structure of the data, irrespective of taxonomic boundaries.

Phylogeny of the Macaronesian endemic Crambe section Dendrocrambe (Brassicaceae) based on internal transcribed spacer sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA.

The 14 species of Crambe L. sect. Dendrocrambe DC.